Apple just announced new features for developers to make filtering SMS messages add more categories in iOS 16. These features will allow developers to implement additional subcategories under transactions, promotions and junk messages, thus helping you easily remove clutter from your message inbox.
According to a report by 9to5Mac, the latest API updates adds 12 new subcategories that will help organise messages. The feature was introduced in iOS 14 and currently only filters transactions and junk messages. The company further allowed third-party apps too to use the feature.
The latest updates to the API adds subcategories like financial transactions, orders, health services, public health services and even mobile phone recharges or top-ups. Promotional messages would also get their own separate section within the app. These would show any coupons or offers. Any other unwanted messages would be sent into the junk.
Apple has indicated that users will see some of these categories in the iMessage app only if the installed app supports it. Apps like Truecaller would need to create their own database of SMS formats. They would then use the API to identify the message and which category it belongs to. This means that none of the messages is shared with third-party apps.
A long way to go
The new updates to the SMS filtering for Messages are a welcome change for iPhone users in India. Previously, the only filters that we saw were promotions and junk. And these were mainly managed by Truecaller. With the new changes, the experience is now almost close to the one we see on Google’s Messages app as well.
But more importantly, users should be given an option to report SMS messages as spam. Or at least move them to the spam folder manually. This will help avoid instances where spammers could change the way they send messages or the format to bypass the check.
Recently, Google stopped the RCS services in India after it was reported that businesses were misusing it for spamming users in the country. Many users reported high traffic of spam messages promoting services and offers. Apple’s latest move could possibly avoid such situations by holding third-party apps responsible for identifying the messages before they are viewed by the user.
